We Have to Tell Them
by RandomRex6
Summary: Man's Greatest Ambition does not come without a price. Naegi feels it's high time the girls were told about what happened. Hagakure disagrees.


"We have to tell them."

"No we don't."

This was an exchange that had gone on ad infinitum for the past half hour or so. As such, when Togami walked in, noting the serious look on Naegi's face and stressed look on Hagakure's, he realized this was more than just the two's normal method of interaction.

"What the devil are you two going on about?" Togami asked, somewhat irritated.

"Naegi-chi apparently wants me to join him in a suicide march," Hagakure explained.

"Hiro! It's not going to be that bad," Naegi countered.

"Maybe not for you! They'll think I roped you into it!"

"I'm being ignored," Togami chimed in, "I don't much care for that."

Naegi turned back to the well-to-do blonde. "Sorry. It's kind of a long story."

"My interest has been piqued."

"Okay..." Naegi gulped.

"You can't even tell Togami-chi?" Hagakure noted. "Maybe I shouldn't be that worried."

"Give me a second!" Naegi shouted back. "Togami, remember when the rest of us first found Alter Ego, and Celes lied about why we were in the bathhouse?"

"I only know what was told to me after the fact," Togami reminded him, "I wasn't there."

"Well," Naegi began, growing flustered. "She told Monokuma the girls were meeting up for a private bath, so they went through with it to make the lie seem real, and..."

Realization dawned. "You two imbeciles played the peeping tom."

Naegi's head hung low. "Y-yeah..."

"Yamada was there, too, but he's..." Hagakure started.

"Never mind that," Togami interjected, "Am I to understand that Naegi thinks it would be wise to inform the others of this?"

"Well, yeah," Naegi answered, "It just makes sense, right? Better they find out from us than somebody else."

"I keep telling him, I've seen the future. They never find out as long as we don't tell them. True as truth," Hagakure argued.

Togami adjusted his glasses. "I hesitate to put any stock in Hagakure's predictions, though I begrudgingly must acknowledge the fool has a point. If no one's told them yet, it's likely no one ever will."

"I can't just walk around with this on my conscience!" Naegi exclaimed.

"Furthermore, didn't you only just convince Kirigiri to begin a romantic endeavor with you?" Togami continued. "This seems like it could very easily bring that to a screeching halt."

Naegi paused. Togami had a very strong argument. Kirigiri took matters of trust very seriously, and the idea that Naegi had breached that trust to such a high degree could end not only his chance at a relationship with her, but perhaps even their ongoing friendship.

The hopeful boy took a deep breath. "It will only get worse if she finds out some other way."

Togami nodded. "If you're that dedicated," he turned to Hagakure, "You'd best go with him."

"Why?!" the fortune teller asked.

"Because I said so," Togami replied, walking away.

Hagakure ultimately did join Naegi on their mission to inform Asahina and Kirigiri of the truth. His reasoning being it would be better to be able to take the brunt of the anger at once, rather than let it stew as the two hunted him down.

As the four gathered privately, Naegi took yet another deep breath.

"So, you're probably wondering why I asked you two to talk," Naegi began.

"Kinda," Asahina responded, "Is something wrong?"

Naegi pondered the best way to answer this. "That kind of depends on you..."

"Huh?"

Kirigiri chimed in with, "Whatever it is, it would be best to just tell us."

The words of the detective reinvigorated Naegi's will. "Okay." Another deep breath. "Remember that time when we were trapped in Hope's Peak, and you and the other girls took a communal bath to try and fool the Mastermind about Alter Ego?"

Kirigiri raised an eyebrow, though said nothing. Asahina nervously replied with, "Yeah..."

"Well, the thing is, Yamada, Hagakure, and I all kinda... sorta..." Naegi trailed off.

Hagakure delivered a quick smack to Naegi's back. "Just say it, dude! I want this to be over with!"

"Want what to be over with?" Asahina exclaimed, growing more suspicious and nervous by the second.

Naegi gulped. "The three of us kind of peeped on you, and we're so, so sorry!"

"WHAT?!" Asahina replied, shocked. She quickly tried to cover her, shall we say, vital areas, despite being fully clothed.

Kirigiri, for her part, said nothing.

Naegi's face had gone beet red and he was avoiding eye contact. This left Hagakure to step up to the plate. "We weren't going to at first! Monokuma put the idea in our heads!"

"Why would Enoshima want you to peep on us?" Kirigiri asked, honestly curious.

"I don't know!" Hagakure exclaimed. "I've stopped trying to figure out why she did anything she did!"

"Why are you telling just us?!" Asahina shouted, "What about Fukawa?!"

"She wasn't there," Kirigiri reminded her.

This took Asahina off-guard. "I thought she was."

"No," Kirigiri countered, "she was deliberately avoiding the group at the time we found Alter Ego. Why would she have been there?"

"Oh yeah..." the swimmer realized.

"Can you ever forgive us?" Naegi asked, getting the group back on topic.

Asahina paused. "It'll be a while, but, I think so..."

"Really?" Hagakure exclaimed.

"Just... just don't do anything like that ever again!" Asahina shouted. "To anyone! Or... or... I'll tell your mom!"

Hagakure's jaw dropped. "Please no! Anything but that!"

Naegi turned to look at Kirigiri as this discussion continued. "Follow me," she said, leading Naegi with her to a different empty room, so the two could speak privately.

"Are you mad?" he asked, still very embarrassed.

"I've had plenty of time to get over it," she replied.

This caught Naegi's attention. "You knew?!"

"Didn't you notice me look toward the door?" Kirigiri asked, "Or was your focus not on my face?"

Naegi began to sputter, desperately trying to form a complete sentence. "I... I mean... you... I wasn't..."

Kirigiri smirked. "Easy to rile up as ever. But I still like that about you."

"Why didn't you ever call me out on it?" Naegi asked.

"Strangely enough, it never seemed to bother me," Kirigiri explained. "At first I thought it was symptomatic of my tendency to set emotional matters aside. Then I realized the way I felt about you, and it bothered me even less."

Naegi could barely believe this. "But what about Yamada and Hagakure?"

"Yamada is... well..." Kirigiri decided it would be best not to speak on that subject any further, "And I trust Hina to deal with Hagakure."

Naegi smiled.

"What?" Kirigiri asked.

"You called her 'Hina'. You're starting to let her in."

Kirigiri's eyes went wide as she pondered this. "I suppose I am."

"You two will get along great, I'm sure," Naegi reassured her.

"Don't expect us to take more communal baths, though," she needled.

Naegi rubbed the back of his head, flustered again. "I wasn't, I..."

Kirigiri shook her head. "A joke. Try to keep a level head about all of this. I don't mind you having seen me. Especially not now."

Naegi blinked, confused. "Why now?"

Kirigiri began to walk out of the room. "Because now I have my old memories back."

"So?" Naegi asked. She shot him a playful smirk.

"So... now I know it wasn't anything you hadn't seen before."

* * *

 **AN: A somewhat odd birthday gift for Naegi. I've gotten a lot of people asking me to write about this, so here you go.**

 **It was really all for the sake of that punchline.**


End file.
